300w Mh Lights Overkill?

[AK77]

Well a stroke of luck. I contacted another manufacturer who supply an identical light and has the same fitting as the 2nd hand light. They are sending me out a bracket for free So a big "up yours" to Whitecroft Lighting .

I shall now start on my sump, as my glass has arrived

 

[AK77]

The bracket arrived today. Slightly different design, but at least its the same distance off the wall as the other one. The lights and brackets have been sprayed and will be wall mounted tomorrow (need someone to hold the vaccum cleaner while I drill). Will be interesting to see if I hit a cable or pipe buried in the wall. Watch this space for impending disasters!

14k bulbs are in now too, so hopefully will get some coralline development underway. The macro algae is definitely growing and was had oxygen beading all over it. So much so that it floated to the surface lol. It must be absorbing some nitrates and phosphates, although the test kit still showed nitrates at about 20ppm. I might just do a big water change if its still not dropped in a week. The starfish don't seem to be affected by it, but its high enough to be hindering coralline development.

The RO unit is mounted in the utility room and is all plumbed in, with a pressure gauge reading 35-40psi. I need some more cable and fitting and possibly a rainwater butt to finalize things but its functioning well. Initially the in-line TDS meter was reading as 345ppm in, 20ppm out. Now that its stabilized and flushed the filters through of any residues, Im reading 345ppm in and 0ppm out. 6 stage filter for the win No more dragging 25L containers full of water back from the LFS for me!!

One thing that is annoying me is the switch that I fitted to one of the MH lights. Sometimes it fizzes and pops away when I switch it on. I've opened it up, everything is seated correctly, no wires are touching anything else. Its rated at 6 amps. My fuse is 5 amps, so I'm buggered if I know what that's all about.

The sump is almost complete. Just waiting on a pump and another piece of glass, since I managed to one of the panes I bought the other day. Tomorrow I'm going to build the framework support from 2"x2" to replace the central panel when its removed. I'll be draining the tank down to about 1/4 to reduce any weight issues. I can't see there being a problem as the tank will remain supported on 3 sides and it sits on half inch chipboard anyway, so the load will be distributed. Once that's done, its just overflow box and plumbing in.... then its showtime

I would post pictures, but my sister won't let me borrow her camera because we had an arguement

 

[SkiFletch]

lol, sounds like you're making good progress. About the halides, define fizzle and pop a little better? Is it the bulb, the ballast, or the connections making the sound? And what kind of ballast is it, electronic or magnetic?

 

[AK77]

Hi Ski,

Basically I wired the lights with 3 core flex. I then hooked them up with an in-line cable switch. Each one is wired correctly, everything firmly in place but, when I flip the switch I get a sparking/fizzing inside the switch. Sometimes you can even see the sparks through the white plastic. I don't know what type the ballasts are but I'm guessing electronic.

Its almost as if there is a loos connection, because sometimes the light fails to start but if I knock the switch, it comes on. I'll take it apart and have a look later on today, but its just really weird why its doing it, because I made especially certain that everything is hooked up right.

 

[SkiFletch]

Wait wait, is the switch wired between the bulb and ballast, or between the ballast and the house suplly? You need special switches and electronics to wire a switch between the bulb and ballast. Remember, startup voltage for these things is anywhere from 500-1000VAC... Something most switches are not rated for.

 

[AK77]

Hi Ski,

The switch is located between the ballast and the main power supply, exactly the same as on the Juwel lighting unit. One of the lights is fine, never seem to have any issue with it at all. The switch has a rating of 6amps. I have a 5amp fuse in the plug, so there shouldn't be any issue on that front. Its just the other one, it will flash inside the switch and the bulb won't come on sometimes. I have to tap it and it works. Its like its a loose connection, but everything is fine in there. I just don't get it!

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, if the connections really are fine, its probably a loose switch.

 

[AK77]

Hi Ski,

Inside are two brass, erm, things, that kinda of pivot on another brass thing. They appear to be firmly in place. Do you suppose that they are just not connecting firmly and the electricity is arcing between the two... hence the sparks?

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, almoast sure of it. While some momentary arcing will happin in almoast any switch, it should not be audible, nor should tapping the switch be required to get it to work... I'd get a new one for safety's sake.

 

[AK77]

Yeah I think I'll have too. More sodding money

 

[AK77]

Well the lights went up last weekend and function beautifully, all apart from the retarded sparking issue every now and then on one of the switches. The only pain in the @$$ with them is that splashes from the return section of the Red Sea Prism, hit the glass and leave salt marks but, that will be resolved shortly.

Today I drained the 180 down to about 10cm of water. The blue damsel fish showed me his distain for the whole affair by turning blacker than the ace of spades lol. He's back to electric blue now. Anyhoo, with the tank drained, I took out my router and cut through the central support of the cabinet. Because of the handles on the router, I could only get about 10cm from the back of the cabinet so the rest was drilled out with a 170mm holesaw and a drill bit.

As with most things, nothing is never easy or straightforward and what I originally thought were dowels, were in fact bloody great big screw/bolts. Good job I never hit one with the router as that could have been reeeeeeeeeeal nasty!!! With the upright severed, I managed to flex and bend it, until it finally broke away from the offending bolts.

Then came the angle grinder . There I was at 5:30pm, sat in my bedroom with safety googles on and a sparks whizzing everywhere from the inside of the cabinet as 4 bolts were chopped through.

I then inserted the dual timber framework I'd erected (which took my weight and my brothers simultaneously (approx 130 kilos) and could easily taken a lot more as its 2"x 2"and sturdy as hell. With the framework firmly in place, I then put the sump inside the cabinet. As luck would have it the Red Sea Prism fits on the side of it as I had planned to do. Its sooo tight, but it just fits, so now I can get rid of that from the main tank, along with the heater and the huge bloody great clumps of cheato algae.

I've refilled the main tank again and all seems well. I took this opportunity to ditch 50 litres of water to help kick the nitrates below 20ppm that I was struggling with. I've ordered another two of the same Hailea 2500 LPH pumps (making 2 in the display tank with a hydor deflectors. I'll also be syncronizing the hydor deflectors to blow simultaneously from one end of the tank, which should produce a nice wave current) and one for the sump. The one in the sump will push about 1600 LPH at 1.2m height, so the 2000 LPH Cleartides overflow should handle it with ease.

I'll get some pictures up later, but so far so good. The cabinet hasn't collapsed and the water is starting to clear. Hopefully, next week the sump will be up and running, nitrates will be 0 and I can think about adding some corals.

 

[SkiFletch]

Pics?

 

[AK77]

Hi Ski,

Sorry I will get some pics up soon. My sister is still being an ass and has hidden her camera.

I'm really pi$$ed off tonight because one of the lights is busted and it took the bulb with it too. So now I need to purchase a new light @ £50 and get a new bulb @ £15. I spent all evening trying to fix it, but every time I flip the switch it trips the auto shut-off on the mains junction box. I thought I managed to solve the problem. Then I tripped the electric again @ 1:30am. At that point I gave up. I might have another crack at it tomorrow, but I'm at the point now where I just want to dump it in the trash and buy a new one. The thing that pee's me off even more is that I paid £35 delivered for that light, which was 2nd hand, when I could of got a brand new one for £50. Live and learn.... well the live part... I just never seem to learn lol.

I got all the pipework today for the sump, only to find that I need an insert to join the overflow box to the pipework, so it back down Wickes tomorrow to get a reducer or something of that nature. I ordered 2 new switches, so I'll use one of them when I get a new light. It looks like corals are going to be a long ways off now, because #1 everything else keeps breaking #2 its damn expensive replacing things.

All I have is sodding problems

 

[AK77]

Finally snuck the camera away and took a few pics

I managed to repair the light with the new RX7s lampholders. The one I received were the wrong type, but some double sided velcro strips soon sorted that out lol. Hopefully the new 14k bulb will arrive tomorrow for the righthand light, as currently its just a standard white lamp.

Here's a picture of the sump with the centre column removed. I mounted the vecton UV sterilizer above the sump too. Behind that, mounted on the rear upright is an 8 gang mulisocket extension. The Cleartides overflow is connected to standard 32mm waste piping. The return pump (although just temporary until more fittings arrive, is hooked up with 15mm pipe and JG pushfittings. I've also ordered some filter wool, which I will possibly either wrap around the return pump or construct a framework and slide in to make a screen. The filter wool is more for noise dampening than filtering.

A picture of the Prism filter that fits with so snugly beneath the framework.

I'll be sorting the cables out and tidying things up a bit when I have the final pump position and pipework in place. I'm awaiting some more JG fittings, specifically a non-return valve on the return pipe. This is purely to stop air being sucked back down should there be a powercut, like I had at 4am the other morning , and filling up the vecton and return pump with air (although I have inverted the pump to help safeguard this).

Corals coming soon me hopes

 

[robbhp]

is the bulb on the right just a normal 10K unit. going to be changing mine soon so just trying to see how big a differacne it will be.

many thanks Rob